Earth Month Celebrations - Minimizing Pollution with Thoughtful Choices for Your Health and planet Earth.

Earth Day was Tuesday April 22 this year. It is a wonderful reminder of how beautiful and unique our planet is. Fun facts about Planet Earth (https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/fun-facts-about-earth-for-kids/):

• Earth is the only planet in our solar system that is known to support life [as far as we know presently]. Its distance from the Sun means it’s not too hot or cold for living things to survive.

• There are thousands of man-made satellites in space, but Earth has just one natural satellite — the moon.

• Research suggests that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Scientists at the National Center for Science Education estimated this approximate age by dating rocks and meteorites.

• Seventy-one percent of the surface of the Earth is covered by water. That means only 29 percent is land.

• Only 3 percent of the Earth’s water is fresh! The rest — 97 percent — is salt water.

• The Greek name for Earth was Gaia. It means “Mother Earth.”

• The Earth’s atmosphere is mostly made up of oxygen and nitrogen. This allows us to breathe.

In Ayurveda (a form of Eastern Medicine), it is a foundational belief that we are deeply connected with Mother Earth, in how our body and mind work. The state of our planetary health is deeply connected with our own health. How we treat our body reflects onto the state of planet Earth's health, ie pollution in air, land and water on Earth ends up affecting each and every living thing on Earth, including humans. As humans, when we choose to eat foods from packages, constantly shop and buy clothes, electronics, beauty products, etc. Our body and mind become cluttered, full of junk and this clutter accumulates waste in the planet.

In honor of mother Earth and for our own health, I like to celebrate Earth Day not just for one day but for EVERY DAY! We can do this by being mindful about the choices we make each and every day, especially in regards to the choices we make as consumers.

A few years ago, I was reflecting on how much plastic packaging and plastic items I was accumulating from the things I would buy from Costco, Amazon, Target, GAP, Lululemon, etc. I decided to make a conscious effort to avoid and not buy things plastic or with plastic packaging.

It was really hard!! I felt overwhelmed and frustrated at what seemed like an unrealistic task. I then reflected further and realized if I was making a conscious effort to reduce plastic waste and having a hard time, think of all the other people that are making even more waste, not realizing its effects on polluting the environment and the planet. This motivated me to make it my life mission to reduce plastic use and to help others find ways to do so.

Here are ways I have found helpful in reducing plastic use and waste:

• BYO: Bring Your Own...

  • Cups - when getting drinks. I especially like to do this when going out for coffee, tea, or Boba because these shops use many single use plastic cups and...

  • STRAWS - plastic straws are super wasteful and easy to pollute due to their small size. I have a bag of stainless steel drink straws and boba straws I keep in my bag when I'm on the go along with the next item...

  • Utensils - plastic utensils are terrible polluters for our planet and for us consumers. When eating with plastic utensils (especially hot foods), plastic chemicals get transferred into the food and into our mouths and body. When going out to eat to a place that uses plastic utensils like food trucks, I bring my own utensils to use then wash them at home. I usually carry a spoon or spork and chopsticks since these utensils are versatile for whatever food you may be eating.

  • To Go Containers - I try not to leftovers since the nutritional value of food reduces over time but if I do, I try to have a non-plastic container to store my food (especially for hot food). I love thermoses as they keep hot foods hot and cold food cold.

  • Food Storage containers - A great way to reduce plastic package waste is to buy bulk. My favorite store in Austin, TX to buy bulk foods is Wheatsville Co-op https://wheatsville.coop/venue/wheatsville-south-lamar/. I’ll be hosting an event there May 4. Check out the Events section of my website to RSVP. If you become a Wheatsville Co-op member you get additional discounts off of food and other store items. I bring large clean jars and containers to refill at the store. They mark the weight of the container (the tared weight) then take it off the total weight at check out. My favorite items to buy bulk from Wheatsville are French Lentils, Red Lentils, Walnuts, Almonds, Chia Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Organic Basmati Rice, Almond butter and Peanut butter (freshly ground nut butters are so tasty!). I also like their bulk shampoo and lotion. Another place in Austin this is great to buy bulk is Parker & Scott. They have my favorite toothpaste tabs and shampoo bars. Yes! I found great alternatives here to plastic shampoo bottles and toothpaste tubes. I also found gochujang and crackers in glass and paper packaging. They specialize in carrying items that aren't in plastic packaging: https://parkerandscott.com/

  

  • Bags - refuse plastic bags when shopping and bring your own bag. I notice stores with curbside will often use plastic bags so I have refused or just avoided curbside to avoid getting plastic bags. Having your own bag is usually more durable and you can carry more things securely. Remember to wash them every so often!

  

  • Drinks - avoid drinks in plastic bottles by bringing your own drink.

  • Food - cooking your own food not only helps to reduce waste from snack bags, plastic containers but often times is healthier because you have control of how fresh your ingredients are and what is added or not added. Many restaurants load food up with processed oils, sugars, salt to increase the flavor for less cost instead of using flavor from fresh ingredients.

• Choose products that are reusable or actually recyclable

  • Did you know that less than 10% of plastics can be recycled? Big oil and plastic industries deceived consumers by saying plastic can be recycled: https://www.npr.org/2024/02/15/1231690415/plastic-recycling-waste-oil-fossil-fuels-climate-change

  • Look for products in glass, paper, tin, aluminum or no packaging. When I buy produce, I use small cloth bags or cloth produce bags.

  • Avoid buying new clothes as this perpetuates more waste. My favorite secondhand stores in Austin are Goodwill, Kid to Kid, Once Upon A Child, Uptown Cheapskate and Pavement. I find many gently use or new items with the original price tags. I also love local vintage stores. Vintage clothes are often made of natural materials like cotton/linen, wool, and silk which are great materials that hold up over time.

• Partner with companies to get rid of non-recyclable goods responsibly

  • Think twice before throwing away any thing in the trash. It doesn't go away. It ends up in landfills and waterways. Remember from the fun facts what percentage of planet Earth is made up of water? 71%!! Scientists are finding microplastics (small bits of those plastics "recycled" and thrown away) in our water, air, in plants, wild life and humans! https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/microplastics-everywhere

  • I have partnered with Ridwell to help dispose of what plastic bags and packages I accumulate. Ridwell is a company's whose mission is to find ways to reuse or renew hard to recycle or compost goods such as lightbulbs, styrofoam, batteries, clothes (holey socks and underwear and good condition items), plastic film, and multi layer plastic bags which is their standard pick up items that they pick up every two weeks right from your home. They partner with local businesses that can reuse these goods or process them for reuse. They also rotate categories of hard to recycle items. This past week they picked up inner tubes. The pick up prior were stuffed animals. Click the link for a free month trial: https://www.ridwell.com/?ref=app

  

  • I also use Terracycle to help dispose hard to recycle and compost items. They've helped me repurpose broken backpacks (with kids in school, we go through several bags), empty cosmetic bottles, dog food bags, used pens, toothpaste tubes (when I used to use them), plastic toothbrushes (now I use compostable), snack pouches and bags. They have companies that offer FREE recycling or repurposing of their packaging. Check out the list of companies that participate: https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades?srsltid=AfmBOor9DAc3HqgWgSBKSE_ueQHNsHxUzy4UsYIvmkPshJJASGql-j8B

A few years ago, my youngest daughter told me about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which she was learning about in elementary school. Have you heard of it? I hadn't at the time and I didn't pay much attention to what my daughter told me about as it wasn't something I had witnessed so didn't believe it was a big deal. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world and is located between California and Hawaii. "The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France".

https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

I faced the brutal truth of the GPGP and what will happen if we do not reduce and stop the over consumption of plastic waste during my last two trips to Hawaii: plastic pollution visible throughout the water and beaches. I have been blessed to see the beauty that is Hawaii over the past almost 20 years of going there but I am also seeing the ill-effects of pollution too. And that pollution will continue to spread unless we each make choices to reduce plastic waste and consumption.

Here’s a video from Discovery to learn more about the state of the planet’s health: https://youtu.be/MnCbTTTi7ic?si=xsRthd7-u7anKKPd

I continue to make it my life's mission to live each day in making choices to improve my health and well-being, to help others do the same to then help the health and well-being of Mother Earth. Join me in improving your health! Learn more ways to improve personal and interplanetary health by booking an appointment with me.

Schedule an appointment with me to determine your current state of health and have a plan to optimize your current health and long term health.